LAS Departments
About the LAS Departments & Programs
The College of Letters, Arts & Sciences offers a robust menu of departments and programs leading to degrees at all levels, from bachelor’s to doctoral programs. Students can choose from a variety of majors and minors within and across the arts & humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, or create their degrees through the Interdisciplinary Studies Program (INDS).
LAS is a highly interdisciplinary college that focuses on the intersection of theoretical knowledge and the application of that knowledge, and most LAS degree paths encourage the exploration of related fields, giving students the chance to benefit from a variety of courses and approaches to problem-solving.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humankind throughout space and time—it brings together the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to explore the full range of diversity in the human past, biology, and social life and practices.
By integrating creativity and robust research with outreach to students and the community through teaching and service, LAS provides students with opportunities to learn and collaborate inside and out of the classroom. Team teaching, interdisciplinary coursework, and integration into applied and hands-on research projects give LAS students a well-rounded look at the human experience.
Army ROTC
Army ROTC provides students with one of the best leadership courses in the world. At UCCS, we commission premier leaders of character whose professionalism, intellectual and physical capabilities, adaptability, and mental toughness prepare them to lead in the Army’s winning units. With our local partners in the Mountain Ranger Battalion, we set the standards for ROTC programs nationwide.
Biology
Develop your appreciation for the diversity of living organisms and the processes that sustain them at UCCS. Survey the origins and diversity of life on this planet and the molecular, genetic, and cellular basis of all life.
Through classwork, labs, and research opportunities, students learn about the complex interactions among organisms and their environments and the biological processes that underlie molecular and organismic evolution, cellular function, and embryonic development.
UCCS offers an interdisciplinary approach to biology, ensuring students have a scientific foundation from which they can explore their particular biological interests.
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Chemistry is the science of substances—their composition, structure, properties, and interactions—and chemistry helps us develop solutions to problems within the fields of medicine, food science, environmental studies, industry and materials science, and everyday life. Our department offers opportunities for research at the undergraduate and graduate level, vibrant and transformative teaching, and the networking resources you need to succeed.
Communication
Want to learn to communicate effectively in various media types and to a range of audiences? A degree in Communication positions students for whatever comes next, whether you want to be an actor, sports announcer, reporter, public relations officer, news anchor, lawyer, journalist, or successful member of any profession that requires communication skills. Join an innovative program with multiple degree options to serve your needs.
Economics
Economics is the study of how people use resources, respond to incentives, and make decisions. It’s a broad discipline that helps us understand what we buy, where we work, and how we live. Economics helps explain historical trends, interpret today’s headlines, and predict the coming years. UCCS faculty work around the world, often taking students for study-abroad experiences.
English
English students gain foundational skills, including clear communication skills, critical thinking for problem-solving, research abilities, insights into cultural and historical contexts, creativity, and empathy while focusing on their preferred genre—creative fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, critical theory, rhetoric, gender studies, or the digital humanities, among others.
Geography & Environmental Studies (GES)
UCCS' award-winning faculty provide a wealth of high-impact learning opportunities to students in inclusive, small-sized settings both inside the classroom and outside in the beautiful, dynamic geography of Colorado and the Pikes Peak Region.
Coursework in Geography and Environmental Studies fosters a greater understanding of the places, people, and environmental systems that affect us locally, regionally, and globally. We prepare graduates for careers that make a positive difference with real-world impacts.
History
The study of history cultivates the skills of careful reading, clear writing, logical thinking, and empathetic cultural understanding. The department cultivates all of these skills as well as pathways of humanistic empathy and understanding of the world, scientific skills of objective investigation, and creative skills of expression and interpretation.
Most people will work in half a dozen different jobs in their lifetime, putting a premium on those people who possess critical thinking skills and can process, analyze, and effectively communicate information and ideas both in writing and public presenting.
The UCCS History major prepares students for these experiences and opens doors to life and career opportunities for the future.
Humanities
Involving stellar faculty from across the College, the UCCS Humanities program leads students through the pursuit of deeply human questions through highly engaging and rewarding courses.
Humanities take our attention away from our personal preferences and narrow concerns by cultivating insight into history, literature, visual art, music, multiple cultures, and philosophy through the pursuit of arts and ideas for their own sake--an experiment with life itself.
Interdisciplinary Studies
Do you have a specific personal or professional interest that requires coursework in more than one traditional degree program? An interdisciplinary degree offers students opportunities to merge multiple interests to create a unique degree.
Languages & Cultures
Join an international, transcultural department dedicated to fostering cross-cultural understanding! Studying another language and culture teaches us to respect and better understand those with different perspectives on the world.
Courses provide students with the linguistic and intellectual bases necessary for critically assessing and living in a multidisciplinary, multicultural, and global environment.
Mathematics
Mathematics helps us solve problems in applied settings, from balancing a checkbook to engineering a bridge, predicting weather patterns, and calculating probability. Math is also one of the most philosophical of disciplines and helps us express patterns and connections everywhere, from music to art and design to biology to astrophysics and everywhere in between. Whether your interests are in pure math or one of its many applications, UCCS' excellent faculty will support you on the path to your goals.
Philosophy
Philosophy addresses perennial questions about values, human existence, and the nature of reality while teaching students analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills.
UCCS' internationally-known faculty offers courses that provide the foundation for top scores on graduate and professional admissions tests and successful careers in fields from law to medicine, management to the government to ministry, and academic areas across the board.
Physics & Energy Science
Physics & Energy Science is a high-energy, productive department that provides opportunities for students of all levels to participate in groundbreaking research projects conducted in state-of-the-art research labs. UCCS faculty are recognized by the CU System both as Inventors of the Year and for their excellent teaching and research.
Political Science
Political Science at UCCS provides students with a broad range of learning opportunities, from a comprehensive curriculum to various internship options, and prepares students to study governance or participate in it.
Faculty experts infuse their teaching with their research, addressing political and legal questions of global, national, regional, and local significance, both past and present.
Psychology
Psychology at UCCS offers both clinical training and robust, award-winning research lab experience on topics such as
- Early child development
- Care for the aging
- Human cognition
- Construction of gender roles
- How emotion plays into human evolution
- And many more
UCCS allows students to develop research projects alongside internationally recognized experts in clinical and theoretical subfields of the discipline.
Sociology
Sociology combines scientific and humanistic perspectives and methods to better understand human interactions in society—how we organize ourselves and in doing so create meaning, rules, values, and social organization.
UCCS' award-winning faculty focus on the study of diversity and inequality from an intersectional perspective, applying sociological insights to everything from urban and rural social organization to family relationships, from social change to intergroup relations, from healthcare to technology, from intergroup relations to restorative justice, from sports and online gaming to food security, from our relationship with the environment to disaster response.
Technical Communication & Information Design (TCID)
TCID is one of only a few stand-alone technical communication departments in the country. We prepare students for rapidly growing, high-salary career fields including user experience design, usability, technical writing, content management, web creation, and information design.
TCID at UCCS has user experience (UX) as its foundation, dedicated to making complex information accessible and understandable to people from all walks of life.
Visual & Performing Arts (VAPA)
VAPA offers students opportunities to participate in professional performances and exhibits and to produce or display their own creative works, all in world-class facilities.
VAPA at UCCS is the only university program in the nation where students in the visual and performing arts receive cutting-edge education and training in their fields of specialization while also benefiting from a department that allows them to articulate their interests, skills, and performances across artistic genres backed by a strong interdisciplinary curriculum.
UCCS faculty specialize in visual art, theatre, dance, music, art history, museum studies, gallery practice, and film studies, and are quickly building the premier arts institution in the West.
Women’s & Ethnic Studies (WEST)
WEST draws from the arts, humanities, and social sciences to explore the connections among race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other identity categories in our work toward social justice and human rights.
UCCS' student-centered, dynamic approach, small class sizes, and internship opportunities encourage students to engage in practical ways within the broader social world, preparing them to become leaders and agents of social change.